Surrey will be treated to a double whammy of performances by the Wet Wet Wet frontman, solo artist and stage musical star Marti Pellow this summer.

Marti, now 49, will appear as Che Guevara in the Andrew Lloyd-Webber/Tim Rice musical Evita at Woking’s New Victoria Theatre and will also perform with Scottish band Wet Wet Wet at Sandown Park in Esher. Wet Wet Wet’s hits in the 1980s and their 15-week chart topping version of The Troggs song Love is All Around, from the soundtrack of the film Four Weddings and a Funeral, brought them worldwide fame. Marti’s subsequent struggle with drugs was well documented, but after getting clean he capitalised on his good looks and singing voice to forge a new career as a leading man in stage musicals such as Chess, Chicago and Blood Brothers.

Speaking from York, where Evita was playing last week, Marti said that he enjoyed touring. He insisted he didn’t even mind doing the publicity interviews which go with the job. But he will not speak at all about his personal life and is guarded on other issues. Asked if he was in favour of Scottish independence he said: “What family I do still have live in Scotland, so I want the best for them. But I like to think that my country is not defined by a border. We all live together. I’d need more knowledge before I commented.”

On Evita, the tale of Eva Peron, wife of the former Argentine dictator Juan Peron, he is loquacious though. He thinks that the longevity of Evita owes a lot to the popularity of its songs. “The British public love them, it’s a very accessible score.” Did approaching the songs from the perspective of being a songwriter himself influence his interpretation? “It might have,” he agrees. “As someone who writes my own music I’ve learnt that you have to ‘inhabit’ the lyrics.”

He didn’t hesitate to accept the role as Che, who narrates the play. Although Guevara is believed never to have met Eva, the musical’s creators realised that his legendary status as a symbol of rebellion in popular culture brought its own power. “I love how they used him as a catalyst and Greek Chorus,” says Marti. “He was so iconic and a fascinating figure to play. It’s just great stuff to work with and I thought aye, I can bring something to the table here.”

Previous interpretations of the role didn’t influence him, he said. “You engage in your own imagination...The challenge is not to change the wheel but to give it its own spokes, to bring your own timbre.” Evita, he says, is “a testament to Lloyd Webber and Rice at the top of their game. “It’s raw and exciting, the choreography is great and Bill Kenwright has put together a beautiful production. Madalena Alberto is wonderful as Eva.”

He is also looking forward to the summer concerts with the other members of Wet Wet Wet. “We’re going to play the songs that people enjoy, to celebrate our back catalogue. It’s very much about entertaining. When you’re performing songs that lots of people enjoy and you’re the catalyst for their memories it’s fulfilling. We very rarely come out to play, so it’s special. Our friendships in the band are still as strong as ever and we’ll do a show when we feel like it.”

He also continues to record and says he has nearly finished “a Celtic project” which goes back to his roots. His tastes in music are eclectic, perhaps the legacy of his early exposure to his parents’ record collection which ranged from 50s and 60s pop to Nelson Riddle, Bill Evans, Burt Bacharach and Hal David. He’d sing along with his mother and his aunties. “I just like real music that touches you. It could be classical, R & B, pop or the blues, anything that makes my hair stand on end.”

And when he’s not working, he relaxes by “looking out of the window and listening. I watch the passing parade, I read, watch movies, listen to the radio – all the things that come from the era I grew up in. My sense memory is of going to the library in the summer with the sun through the window and the smell of the books. Of standing in queue to buy the latest record and reading the cover sleeve. Only these days I’d have to get my glasses first.”

Evita is at New Victoria Theatre from Monday June 23 to Saturday June 28. To book, call 0844 8717645. Wet Wet Wet will perform at Sandown Park Racecourse after the races on Saturday July 23. For more information, visit www.sandown.co.uk.